Spore
C3 reviews Spore Hero (Wii)
Jan 14th
That’s not to suggest it does anything badly. Graphically it looks suitable gaudy and shiny and all the squeaks and squelches are appropriately cute and cuddly. What’s perhaps the most appealing aspect is the way in which it attempts to let you leave your mark on the world. If you explore lots you’ll get a more exploratory creature, if you fight more you’ll get a better fighter. Alongside this you have the chance to ‘leave your mark’ by altering other creatures and generally mucking around with your surroundings. But it never goes far enough, it always keeps with what is comfortable, what is tediously generic.
SimOperations – Spore Origins reviewed for the iPhone
Jan 13th
SimOperations would like to share with you their review of Spore Origins for the iPhone:
The lasting appeal for Spore Origins is that it isn’t a game in which you need to dedicate a lot of time to. You can pick it up and play it anytime you have your iPhone/iPod touch with you and continue your game without extensive loading. Whether you’re on break at work or just not near your computer, Spore Origins is a great little time waster.
EA to settle the SecuROM Class Action Lawsuit
Jan 13th
It’s been a long time since we’ve last heard about Eldridge vs. Electronic Arts, the case in which gamers filed a lawsuit on EA due to the fact they did not disclose they used SecuROM in the game nor provided a proper way to remove all of the files. Things are looking up though, as word has just got out that EA has agreed to settle the SecuROM Class Action Lawsuit with a hearing on March 12, 2010.
Here is the email from Girard Gibbs LLP (provided by Reclaim your Game)
Thank you for taking the time to contact our law firm about the litigation involving Electronic Arts computer games. This email is to notify you of a settlement reached between the plaintiffs and Electronic Arts.
The Case Against Electronic Arts
Girard Gibbs LLP and several other law firms filed lawsuits against Electronic Arts (EA) after the plaintiffs learned that when they installed certain computer games distributed by EA, a copy-protection program called SecuROM was installed on their computers without their consent. Among other things, the plaintiffs claimed that EA’s use of SecuROM was a trespass to chattels.
The Settlement
Recently, the parties agreed to a settlement which has been preliminarily approved by the court. You can view a copy of the settlement agreement, notice of settlement, complaint, and the court’s preliminary approval of settlement order at www.easettlement.com. The website also contains answers to frequently asked questions.
The settlement is a major step to ensuring that future purchasers and downloaders of EA computer games will not have SecuROM installed on their computers unwittingly. The settlement requires EA to prominently inform consumers if SecuROM is included with one of its games by placing prominent disclosures on its retail packaging, on its online store, and in its end-user license agreements.
In addition, the settlement will streamline support to those who currently wish to remove SecuROM from their computers. Under the agreement, EA’s disclosures will direct consumers to SecuROM’s website (http://securom.com) where support for uninstalling SecuROM and for other information on the program are readily available.
Finally, the settlement preserves your rights to seek compensation from EA if you believe the installation of SecuROM onto your computer caused you damages. The settlement agreement specifically preserves claims for breach of the end-user license agreement, breach of express warranty, and trespass to chattels or property. It also expands your rights of forum selection, so you can bring suit in a court in any state (previously, such actions would have had to be brought in California ). If you believe you may have been damaged by SecuROM, we recommend you act promptly to determine whether and how to pursue your claim, including by seeking legal representation or filing a small claims action on your own behalf.
If after viewing the EA Settlement website you have any questions about the case, please feel free to reply to this email.
Girard Gibbs LLP
601 California Street, Suite 1400
San Francisco , CA 94108
Phone: (415) 981-4800
Fax: (415) 981-4846
www.girardgibbs.com
Spore’s Darwin Day Challenge
Jan 12th
Darwin’s birthday is coming up – February 2nd to be exact! To celebrate this event, Spore is kicking off the Darwin Day Challenge, a contest in which players can create any creations or adventures related to evolution and his contributions to science! I was a bit worried about this because the topic of evolution sturs up trouble with those who believe in creationism. Luckily MaxisCactus has put her foot down and warned those to stick with creation-discussion only.
Note: This is not a spot for a verbal debate on evolution vs creationism. Please read: this and this before posting anything in that vein.
Challenge Details
Darwin’s birthday is coming soon, Feb 2nd. To celebrate, create any creation or adventure that relates to his contributions to science. On Darwin Day, the winning creation(s) will be featured.Resources:
Example creations:
What will the challenge winner(s) get?A chance to be featured on Spore.com! We’re going to choose a few of the top voted creations to share the glory here.
We’ll post our favorite submissions here, then YOU get to vote for which one is your top pick! The winner(s) may be featured if they meet our criteria for featured creations
- Creation must not have any parent authored by a different creator
- Creation must not have any offensive creation in its lineage (any parent or child creations)
- Creation must not have any links or references to other sites in the submission’s tags, name, or description
Submissions that do not meet the above criteria will not be considered for the poll
Rules:
- Your creation must be related to Darwin’s contributions. If the connection is unclear from the PNG, please include how the creation relates in the description
- Your creation may be created in any editor including the adventure editor. It may also be in the form of a Sporecast.
- To submit a creation, just publish and tag it with: mcdarwinchallenge
- You can submit as many creations as you’d like
- All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT Jan 25, 2010
- Optional: Post screenshots or YouTube movies of your creation on the forum
UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending January 9, 2010
Jan 11th
One of these weeks The Sims 3 will claim it’s #1 position – it just won’t be this week :P
Source: Chart Track
IntoMobile – Spore Creatures (iPhone) preview at CES 2010
Jan 9th
This new Spore Creatures game picks up where Spore Origins left off and puts you in control of your organism as it makes the transition to land. You can evolve feet, attack weapons, defensive traits, eyes, and even different colors. Not content to just push out a sequel title, EA Mobile also decided to make the environment interactive and enemy creatures smarter. You can push and pull objects to get where you need to go, while trying to time your attacks against enemies for when they’re at their weakest.
Dr. Pepper/EA’s Spore 1.06 Patch and 14 Mech Parts download
Jan 7th
Well what do you know, I have picked up 3 bottles of Dr. Pepper with the promotional code and installed the 14 Spore Mech Parts patch that was shown off a few days back. After installing, I noticed that it updated my Spore game to version 1.06. So yeah, I can’t believe they are holding off an actual patch from the players :/ I can’t say what exactly the patch fixes because there is no notes but I’m sure it’ll eventually wind up at the official Spore site someday. If you want to download the patch for yourself I have added it to the website.
Download the Spore 1.06 Patch with 14 Mech Parts here (330mb)
Spore Bots Parts Pack Notes:
- This is an official Spore patch in terms that it came directly from http://www.spore.com untouched in terms of me uploading it. However, according to MaxisCactus it is deemed ‘unofficial’ due to the fact that they haven’t officially released it themselves: The “patch 1.06″ is not an EA/Maxis product. Please exercise caution and only download content from sources you trust. If you install this patch, you will have an unsupported build of the game, which may mean you won’t be able to get help from CS in the future. This patch will allow you to play with the new parts in game, but you will not be able to publish them because it does not grant the entitlement necessary for publication. Rest assured that I haven’t modified it or touched it in any way whatsoever.
- PC Instructions: Install the patch using the setup.exe installer. If that doesn’t work for you, extract the BP2_Data.package file and install it like a mod
- Mac Instructions (or if you can’t get the PC version to install): Go to Finder>Downloads>Spore_Patch_6> then right-click Spore or Spore Galactic Adventures, click “Show Package Contents” then Contents>Resources>Transgaming>C_drive>Spore_EP1>Data> then drag “BP2_Data.package” from the first window to the second and you’re done! (Thanks to Nicholas for sending in the tip)
- Users are reporting you cannot share these creatures by the official exchange due to a lock issue. However it has been reported that you can still share them by posting the PNG file – just not to the official site. This may be fixed when EA releases the patch on their website and removes the lock code.
- Installing GA after installing the Dr Pepper parts pack is unsupported. Click here to find out more about how to fix your game issues if you’ve followed this unsupported path.
- Buy a Dr. Pepper if they are sold in your area to support them.
Wild Pet Spore Challenge – Finalists Posted, vote now!
Jan 5th
The finalists have been selected for the Wild Pet Spore Challenge! Hope at least one of our readers are one of them (I doubt it though, I don’t know how many Spore fans actually read the news from this site). My personal favorite? I’d have to give it to the Palm Cockatoo By Khloe14. Pretty freaking sweet. Vote here.
Finalists Announced!
Congratulations to the following players who made it to the finalist voting round. Vote for your top pick!1. squirrel By 2001Monolith
2. chilean rose tarantula By Dismembo
3. Owl By Alvador
4. Frill-necked Lizard (fixed) By Luxina
5. Lemur By CopperLou
6. Fire Jeweled Dragonfly By Dragonvoid
7. Jerboa By TanjaH
8. Poison Dart Frog By Rebecca1208
9. Emperor Scorpion By Puglin
10. RECRUIT of the The Vulture empire By Slartibartfast38
11. Alligator Snapping Turtle By Nuumamonja
12. Dangerous Frog By Antarcticas
13. Banded Mongoose By Tosu-X
14. Sengi By mbirt
15. Jumping Spider By bluesky681
16. Desperaux By ReginaldLuther
17. Drazil By ChefBagley
18. Common Pheasant By Garnold
19. Spider By Riverleigh76
20. Palm Cockatoo By Khloe14
Dr. Pepper/EA Promotion – Get 14 new Spore Robotics parts
Jan 5th
Want this Spore Patch with the 14 Mech Parts? Check out this following post to download!
2010 DR PEPPER/EA GAMES EVERY BOTTLE/CUP WINS
Dr. Pepper is giving away exclusive in-game content for Spore. Every bottle/can wins!
Look under the cap of specially marked 20 oz., 16 oz. and 14 oz. bottles of Dr Pepper®, Dr Pepper Cherry, Diet Dr Pepper and Diet Dr Pepper Cherry for the game code and redeem for a set of all new creature parts to use in the Spore Creature Creator.
• Enter your code here
• Official RulesParts Preview:
The part set includes 14 new mech styled parts to be added in the creature editor.
Example creatures made using the new mech parts:
Notes:
• Installing GA after installing the Dr Pepper parts pack is unsupported. Click here to find out more about how to fix your game issues if you’ve followed this unsupported path.• The bot parts pack is available for PC users.
This stinks. While at Best Buy I tried searching for Chuck Season 2 on Blu-ray. No luck, all sold out – too many geeks in my city. Not only that, but no Dr. Pepper with this promotion. Once I get a code for myself, I’m uploading it to the site. If anyone happens to come across this file or have a code, let me know immediately as this promotion is only for the US. Personally I think it should be enjoyed by everybody.
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